WHICH MATERIAL FOR YOUR JEWELRY RING?
Not all metals used in jewelry are equal. It can be useful for you to know the benefits and the peculiar qualities of each of them, in order to make the best decision purchasing a ring. More, each metal has its price, so you have to consider also this relevant factor.
It could be interesting for you to be informed about two important characteristics of gold that is the most popular metal used for men’s and women’s wedding and engagement rings.
The first one is the carat. This measure unit suggests you the gold content of the metal. To be more precise it measures the proportion of pure gold mixed with other metal alloy to generate the final metal. The abbreviations “ct” or “kt” or “K” represent the carat of gold (which is different from the carat of diamonds and gemstones), sometimes called “karat”. Speaking of rings, usually they are stamped with a marking showing the kind of gold used. Essentially there are three gold carats used to make rings: 9kt, 14kt and 18kt. The 9 karats gold contains 37,5% of pure gold, the 14 karats gold 58,5% of pure gold and the 18 karats gold 75% of pure gold. The higher the proportion of gold used in the final metal, the more precious and expensive the metal will be.
The second factor to consider for gold is its hardness. The harder it is the more enduring the gold will be. The Vickers scale is used to measure the metal hardness. In this scale harder metals receive a higher Vickers score than less hard metal. For example 18kt gold has a Vickers hardness of 125, while 9kt gold of 120.
Let’s see a brief qualities’ description for each of the following metals or alloys:
